What the heck is this 'Core' thing? These days we hear lots about training the ‘core’. It is a favorite new buzzword for many fitness professional and people in gyms all over the world. Core training is nothing new, certainly not to me. A strong core is absolutely vital for great athletic performance and is also helpful for everyone. Whether you are an athlete or not, you will benefit from a strong core. Let me explain to you just what the core is and why core strength is so very important. The core is comprised of nearly 30 different muscles that basically wrap around your body in the area between your hips and ribcage. There are a couple ways to think about this in easy terms. First of all think of you body in two halves, the lower half and the upper half. The core area is between the two and can be thought of as a ‘bridge’ that connects them. That connection allows the upper and lower body to work together. Another visual is to think of the rebar in a foundation. Imagine that your core area is just like the foundation of a house. When not trained, it is a foundation without its rebar and one likely to weaken and cause problems, while a conditioned core is a strong and sturdy foundation with rebar. Basically the core is fundamental to all body movement. Whether you realize it or not you hardly make a move without engaging your core. You do it when you walk up and down stairs; you do it when you bend down to pick something up. Your core engages and provides you with balance and stability. When it comes to athletic performance, a strong core makes all the difference. When you are moving through your sport of choice you are using your body at its most functional state, as a whole. The upper half and lower half need to work in together in order to effectively jump, throw, twist, hit, run, the list goes on and on. Your core is the basis for all of this movement and the strength or weakness of that core will dictate the ease in which you move on the field or court. I get frustrated when I see the exercises that many young athletes are told to do by their coaches. This ‘old school’ training has athletes going to weight rooms and ‘lifting’ no matter what sport or position they are participating in. That makes no sense yet this is what is going on at many high schools and colleges today. Very often the lifting that is being done is nothing more than throwing weight around aimlessly to see how much you can lift. This serves no purpose except that you can then say how much you lifted; how does this help on the playing field? It doesn’t. Athletics and life require good balance. Your balance comes from your core; a strong core equals good balance. Here are just a few examples: • Think of the volleyball player jumping and spiking the ball in mid-air. Can a situation be less stable? The power for that spike has to come from the core! • Think of the shortstop who runs to catch a grounder and then must jump, twist and throw all at the same time, again, ALL core! • Think of the tennis player who runs across the court and then smashes a return to the opposite side, ALL core! Core training is not difficult or time consuming and it does not require expensive gym equipment. Core training is innovative, challenging and creative; heck, it’s fun! Of course the results are the real fun. The body is an amazing thing and it is capable of amazing things but you need to work with it, not against it. You need to train it, not punish it.
